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Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

As I have been spending some time studying new books and reviewing others that we have previously used in our Kodiak Mountain Stone Education Plan I have enjoyed learning new things and refreshing my mind with things I have been taught in the past. Tonight I was reviewing my notes from a book that I loved and we had used in one of our education meetings in the past, Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money, by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

Thou Shall Prosper is a well written book giving a practical approach to making money and creating wealth based on the principles of ancient Jewish wisdom. Lapin outlines his ten commandments of making money that Jews have used for centuries to be successful in business and finance. Whatever your faith or background, you will be able to benefit from the thoughts and ideas outlined in this book. He teaches that a person’s quest for profit and wealth is inherently moral. In our world today there’s often a negative view toward people who are trying to get ahead and make money. Just try telling someone that you’re learning what it takes to be rich, to be a multi-millionaire and watch how they react. Some will be positive and supportive but many, if not most, will look at you as greedy, selfish and maybe crazy. But the fact is that you cannot make money without benefiting other people. He says, “the only real way to achieve wealth is to attend diligently to the needs of others and to conduct oneself in an honourable and trustworthy fashion.”

The Second Commandment Extend the Network of Your Connectedness to Many People

Today I’m going to focus on The Second Commandment where Lapin teaches the importance of networking and our replationships with people. He teaches that you need to meet a lot of people from all different areas of life. He also explains that cities offer the most opportunity for making wealth. It makes sense that you have a better chance of succeeding in business or with wealth if you go to where people are. You can have the best business in town with 100% of market share, but if there are only 500 people in your town and they are your entire market, well, you see your limitations.

Our company, Kodiak Mountain Stone, is a perfect example of this for me. We started Kodiak Mountain Stone in Cardston, Alberta, Canada and continue to have our head office located there. The support we have had from the community for our business has exceeded my expectations and I’m grateful for such tremendous support. But Cardston is a community with a population under 4,000 people. To grow our company we had to extend our reach far beyond the boundaries of Cardston. When you look at some of the cities we sell in now, if we have a very small market share of that community it could be much larger than 100% market share of Cardston. You have to be where your customers are.

As you look to expand your network you will be successful if you focus more on building genuine relationships rather than looking for people that can do something for you.

“On the face of it, this book’s Second Commandment advises you to build genuine and sincere relationships with as many people as possible with no thought of reward. Beneath the surface, it informs you that, paradoxically, reward will follow in proportion to the lack of self-interest you projected while forming the relationships in the first place.”

At Kodiak Mountain Stone I’ve stressed to my team that people want to do business with other people who they like and trust. In Thou Shall Prosper we are taught that if we succeed in business it will be because people like us. Everyone has a choice who they deal with and it’s through your actions that people will decide if they want to deal with you, and your business, or not.

Thou Shall Prosper shares a great perspective on building wealth and money. Daniel Lapin shares some excellent insight on the topic. This is a great book that I would recommend reading but I would also recommend re-reading it, making notes and reviewing them often. The ideas shared in this book will help you in your business and professional lives.